AFI Come Back Around (Again) For Punk And Pac-Man

Posted 10/13/2009 1:08:44 pm
by Kyle Anderson.

Last week, AFI (that’s “A Fire Inside” to newbies) came by the MTV Newsroom for an interview about their latest album Crash Love, their newest video “Medicate” and their current tour. In my career, I’m fairly certain that I’ve talked to the members of AFI (particularly singer Davey Havok) more than anybody else. In fact, I’ve interviewed Havok for every single outlet that has ever employed me. Luckily, I happen to be a huge fan of their records and Havok happens to be a tremendously quotable human being. He once told me a fantastic story about the worst summer job he had as a kid. He was paid to sort pears in a shed in the California sun for hours at a time, and it was horrible. In that same interview, we also talked about the uncomfortable groupies on the Warped Tour. Havok isn’t afraid of any topics, and he has thoughtful things to say about most everything you throw at him.

Friday was no different. In addition to talking about their awesomely old-school fan club, they also discussed how nervous they were working with producer Jacknife Lee (the band is used to crafting albums bit by bit, and Lee prefers a more “live” sound) as well as the strange band comparisons they’ve heard over the years (Havok will never forget one of the first reviews ever written about his band, which compared them to the Ramones). But by far the topic that excited Havok the most was “Pac-Man.” He raved about playing it in an arcade as a kid, claimed he had a “Pac-Man” backpack and even crooned a little bit of the disco cult classic “Pac-Man Fever.” (Stay tuned to Multiplayer for snippets of that amazing piece of tape.)

Clearly, Havok is a man of many talents, and wearing fake shiny earrings is only one.